


A Strange Diet

by CalistaRouge



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alien Flora & Fauna, Food Poisoning, Graphic Description, Gross, Insecure Stephen Strange, M/M, Protective Wong, Sick Stephen Strange, Sickfic, Stephen Strange & Wong Friendship, Worried Tony Stark, wong is tired of your bullshit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-15 09:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19293250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalistaRouge/pseuds/CalistaRouge
Summary: (From @ironstrangeprompts on Tumblr)Prompt #365Stephen becomes very sick after a date with Tony and Wong discovers that he was poisoned. Wong confronts Tony.





	1. Chapter 1

"Stephen's what?!"

"Sick." Wong repeats for almost the fifth time that day. "Poisoned, it seems. He has been throwing up constantly ever since he got back from his date with you and has begun to run a fever."

Wong glared at Tony while he tried to wrap his head around the sorcerer's words. Stephen’s been poisoned? No wonder he hasn’t replied to any of his texts. But how?

"Stephen's been going in and out of consciousness while his body tries to heal itself. He won't tell me anything, so you tell me, Stark. What. Did. You. Do."

Tony sunk further down into his chair under the weight of Wong's stare as he replayed the events of their date in his mind. Try as he might, he couldn't recall anything even remotely out of the ordinary, not even any magic from Stephen. 

The two simply dined at one of Tony's favorite restaurants, he bought all the tables for the night and doubled the security he normally went around with to make sure no one could even get a glimpse of them together for Stephen’s sake, and ate a fantastic dinner. They shared a bottle of wine or two, and parted ways immediately after that. Okay, yeah, they might have shared a kiss before Stephen portaled away, but Tony didn't think he was that bad of a kisser… Was he?

"Nothing! I swear I didn't do anything to him!" Tony said, raising his hands in a show of innocence. "We just had dinner and he left immediately after."

That made Wong pause for a minute. Tony watched as realization dawned on the other man's face.

"Wait, you're telling me he ate _food_?" Wong asked Tony incredulously, eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

Tony blinked in confusion and replied, "Yes? I think that's the whole point of taking him out to dinner, Wong."

"That idiot! And he didn't even tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"God, Stephen can't eat human food, Stark! It's practically poison to him." Wong pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. "That idiot probably missed his old, lavish lifestyle and couldn't resist."

The gears were turning in Tony’s head before it clicked. He made Stephen eat food that was basically poisonous. 

_Oh God, what have I done?_

"I swear, he hasn't been focusing ever since-"

"Wong! Can I see him?" Tony interrupts the sorcerer, mind reeling with this new information. He poisoned Stephen! He didn't know it at the time, but still! He had to make sure he was okay or he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

"You're not gonna like it." Wong grumbled, but he slipped his sling ring onto his fingers and proceeded to open a portal into the New York Sanctum anyway. 

Both men stepped into the old building and Wong nodded towards the staircase.

"He's on the second floor. Third room on the right. I'll bring him some tea."

"Thank you, Wong."

Tony hurriedly rushed up the stairs and found Stephen's door. He knocked softly so as not to startle the man, and then slowly stepped inside.

"Hey Stephen." He was wrecked.. His hair was matted with sweat and his eyes were bloodshot. His shirt and sweatpants clung to his skin and he was breathing shallowly, as if he has just finished emptying the contents of his stomach.

"Tony." Stephen said, voice hoarse and weak. "What are you doing here?"

"Checking up on you, asshole," Tony sat down by the foot of the bed, "Why didn't you tell me you couldn't eat normal food?"

Stephen closed his eyes and sighed, guilt filling him as he said, "I really wanted to spend more time with you and you looked so excited to take me out somewhere; I just didn't want to disappoint you and make myself a hassle."

"And you think getting sick isn’t?" Tony asked him. "Seeing you like this hurts me, Stephen. And knowing that I did this to you is even worse."

"I know, Tony, I'm sorry.” Stephen said tiredly. “I didn’t want to bother you since you already had it all planned out.”

"You know I don’t care about plans much, right? I wouldn't mind a movie date or even us just hanging out somewhere and talking." Tony smiled softly at the sorcerer, "I just want to spend time with you, Stephen, and I don’t care what we’re doing. Hell, I'd even settle for a date here in your weird museum, looking at the relics and organizing books."

That got a laugh out of him. "Next time." Stephen smiles back and Wong comes in with the tea. 

"This should help soothe your nausea." 

Tony props Stephen up on some pillows as Wong carefully helps him sip the hot tea. He slumps against the pillows and Wong sets the cup down on the table.

Tony brushes a stray lock of hair out of his face. "Sleep. Get some rest, Stephen."

The sorcerer nods and quickly falls asleep. Wong checks his temperature and is seemingly pleased. He then sits on a nearby chair and pulls a book out of nowhere.

"Come back tomorrow, he should be better by then."

Tony nods and makes his way out, "Sure thing, Wong."

“Sweet dreams, Stephen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm also Calistarouge on tumblr and I found this wonderful prompt by ironstrangeprompts and it turned into this thing! I also saw a few posts there that Stephen eats some weird alien stuff to sustain his magic (I think it's from the comics) so human food makes him really really sick because of the changes to his body from using magic so much. 
> 
> I'm thinking about adding a 2nd part to this where Tony finds out what exactly Stephen eats 🤔


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Per Tony’s request, Stephen shows him what he really eats. Tony has mild regrets about asking.

It’s been three days since Stephen got himself food poisoning, though he’s doing much better now. Tony insisted that he rest some more but he refused, saying that the Earth wasn’t going to protect itself. Said sorcerer and inventor were currently in the Sanctum’s library; Stephen was at his desk with a stack of books and various old papers strewn all over it, while Tony was lounging on a nearby chair with his tablet in hand.

Tony was winding down after a long day spent with businessmen and SHIELD agents and was ready to watch a movie with Stephen, but he was still trying to translate a particularly complicated spell, so instead Tony busied himself with making upgrades to Peter’s suit.

Eventually, Tony grew bored of designing and let his mind wander to Stephen, who was still recovering from that incident. 

On the outside, he still looked very much like a regular human, but Stephen had explained that practicing magic as often and on the scale that he did had an adverse effect on his body. He needs to consume food with magical essence (whatever that meant) in order to quickly replenish his.

“So you’re saying,” Tony had deduced, “that you can technically live without eating, since meditating restores your magic?”

Stephen nodded, “I could, but it would take days to get back to full strength using that method.”

Tony’s gaze now wandered over to Stephen who was still bent over yellowing pages and muttering things under his breath. He looked tired, like he’d been doing it for hours, (he had been) so Tony decided it was time for a distraction.

“Hey Stephen?”

“Yes, Tony?”

“If you can’t eat human food, then what _do_ you eat?”

Stephen didn’t look up from the pile of papers as he answered, “I already told you, I eat food from dimensions that are more in-tune with universal magic than ours is.”

Tony rolled his eyes playfully, “Yeah, but _what_ is it? Is it like anything like our food? Do they have magical snickers bars and gatorade there?”

Now it was Stephen’s turn to roll his eyes, “No, the food there is nothing like the food you eat here.”

“Describe it to me, Doc, I’m curious.”

“Hmmm, I’ll do you one better, follow me.” Stephen stood up from his chair and stretched for a bit as Tony let out a whoop in victory. The two men strode into the hallway, down the stairs, and then into another corridor.

“The closest thing I can think of to describe what I eat is sushi, but that’s a horrible understatement. Fortunately, we don’t have to go into any of their home dimensions.” Stephen explained, “Wong and I decided to domesticate some of them after he had to umm, save me from one of the larger creatures of one dimension.”

They reached a large wooden door near the end of the corridor that looked very heavy and was covered in softly glowing symbols. 

“I have to tell you, though, try not to breathe too much with your nose,” Stephen conjured a thick mask out of nowhere and offered it to Tony, “This should help somewhat with the smell.”

After he put on the mask, Stephen opened the door with magic and Tony was immediately hit by a horrible stench, it made his eyes water and he had to put effort into not gagging. Stephen was entirely unfazed by it, but it was probably the worst smell Tony had ever encountered. To put it simply, it smelled like rot, sewage, and dead fish all at once. Tony could only wonder how much worse it would be if he didn’t have the mask on.

Stephen stepped inside and crouched down before a shallow red pool. The windowless room was dimly lit by a few glowing orbs hovering near the walls. There were several shallow pools with varying colored water (if you could even call the black liquid, _water_ ) and turbidity, and each had a small sign hovering above it in a strange language. 

In some of the pools, Tony could see some weird alien creatures swimming beneath the surface. They looked like weird hybrids of those creepy deep sea creatures people make documentaries about. Some had several more tentacles than what was normal on Earth, while others had multiple eyes on their bodies and not much else else; some glowed like they were radioactive while others looked like squishy coral with teeth and fins. 

Tony stood beside Stephen as he stuck his hands in the questionably ruby colored water and grabbed a squirming, purple, worm-like creature that was translucent and had six small fleshy stubs for legs. Stephen showed it to Tony and he observed the organs moving within its body in equal parts disgust and awe.

“This is one of my favorites, it’s still a juvenile but they taste better like that.” Stephen told Tony before promptly taking a large bite in the creature. 

Tony scrambled away from the spray of blood that followed, saying “Holy shit, Doc.”

Stephen just shrugged and said, “I have to eat them raw to get the most magical essence out of them.”

He watched Stephen finish the purple worm creature before asking, “What do they taste like?”

Stephen thought for a moment before answering, “These would probably taste like sour patch candies and red wine after being vomited up by a small child.”

Tony gaped at Stephen in bafflement, “And that one’s your favorite?!”

“That should probably say a lot about how the others taste.”

Tony shook his head, he was ready to get out of the horrible smelling room, “Alright, I don’t wanna know, but why the variety?”

“It depends on what I need. If I use too much of my magic at once, then I’ll eat the shrimp-looking ones over there.” Stephen points out the nearly black pool in a dimmer area of the room and when Tony squints, he can see large, white insect-like creatures with more legs than a centipede and two tails swimming happily about.

“Those taste like a two week-old corpse drenched in gasoline and vinegar.” Stephen commented, standing up and using magic to clean his hands as Tony gagged at the mental taste he was given.

“Jesus Christ, Stephen.” Tony shuddered, removing the mask after they left the room, “Please never describe anything that graphic ever again.”

Stephen grinned, “No promises.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for reading again! hey look at that! Stephen eats alien worms and bugs. Sorry if things got a bit graphic, I had too much fun describing them, oops
> 
> I'm gonna add a part 3 (or maybe make it a separate fic?) where Stephen is able to enjoy food again (I saw another one of ironstrangeprompts wonderful prompts, #370) and that'll conclude this weird food fic maybe idk :D

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm also Calistarouge on tumblr and I found this wonderful prompt by ironstrangeprompts and it turned into this thing! I also saw a few posts there that Stephen eats some weird alien stuff to sustain his magic (I think it's from the comics) so human food makes him really really sick because of the changes to his body from using magic so much. 
> 
> I'm thinking about adding a 2nd part to this where Tony finds out what exactly Stephen eats 🤔


End file.
